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South Africa:Anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela has gallstones removed – recovering
Former South African President Nelson Mandela. PHOTO/PETER DEJONG /AP
Nelson Mandela, the 94-year-old former South African president and Nobel Peace laureate hospitalized with a lung infection, has successfully undergone a procedure to have gallstones removed, the government said on Saturday.
“The former president underwent a procedure via endoscopy to have gallstones removed. The procedure was successful and Madiba is recovering,” an official revealed in a statement, using Mandela’s clan name.
South Africa’s first black president, who came to power in historic all-race elections in 1994 after decades struggling against a brutal system – apartheid, remains a symbol of resistance to racism and injustice at home and around the world.
Mandela was admitted to a Pretoria hospital on Saturday a week ago after being flown from his home village of Qunu in a remote, rural part of the Eastern Cape province.
Tests revealed a recurrence of a lung infection and that he had developed gallstones, the government statement said.
The medical team had decided to treat the lung infection before attending to the gallstones, it said.
Mandela spent 27 years in apartheid prisons, including 18 years on the windswept Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town.
